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Monday, July 18, 2011

Grassley/Issa, or as some now refer to them "Grassa" (sort of like "Brangelina"), fire double broadsides at FBI & DEA. and NAME NAMES.

Press Release:

Monday, July 17, 2011

Issa, Grassley Press for Answers from FBI, DEA in Fast and Furious Investigation

WASHINGTON – Representative Darrell Issa and Senator Chuck Grassley are pushing for additional information and documents from the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in relation to the two agencies roles in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) reckless strategy known as Operation Fast and Furious. The strategy employed by the ATF allowed firearms to be purchased by known straw buyers and then transferred to third parties where the guns often crossed the border to Mexican drug cartels.

The letters are a follow-up to a recorded, transcribed interview with Acting ATF Director Ken Melson. The Acting Director was interviewed by congressional investigators on July 4 where he corroborated several details that included other agencies involved in Operation Fast and Furious.

In the letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller, Grassley and Issa asked about the “veracity of claims” regarding the possible involvement of paid FBI informants in Operation Fast and Furious and “specifically at least one individual who is allegedly an FBI informant” and “might have been in communication with, and was perhaps even conspiring with, at least one suspect whom ATF was monitoring.”

The letter to DEA Administrator Michelle Leonhart requested a briefing by DEA staff as well as “the number of informants or cooperating informants handled by other agencies identified in the course of any investigations related to Operation Fast and Furious.”

In addition, both letters (to Mueller and Leonhart) asked for communications of several members of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force who were working in coordination with the ATF to conduct Operation Fast and Furious.

On March 15, 2011, Senator Grassley sent you a letter requesting a briefing to gain a better understanding of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) involvement in Operation Fast and Furious. Conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), Operation Fast and Furious, was an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) case. That letter is attached for your ready reference. Nearly four months later, your agency has yet to respond directly.

On April 12, 2011, the Department of Justice (DOJ) responded on behalf of DEA. In its letter, DOJ stated:

Generally speaking, . . . when another Department component leads an OCDETF investigation, DEA works cooperatively to support drug-related aspects of the investigation. Such cooperation means that DEA may share investigative expertise, report leads, and provide manpower to assist in an investigative or enforcement operation as requested by the lead investigative agency.[1]

This information sharing, or lack thereof, is precisely the reason Senator Grassley made the initial request. Consequently, we request that you make arrangements by no later than July 19, 2011 for DEA supervisors and personnel with specific knowledge of details related to Operation Fast and Furious and the parallel DEA case to brief members of both of our staffs.

In addition to the aforementioned briefing, please provide the following documents:

1) The number of informants or cooperating defendants handled by other agencies identified in the course of any investigations related to Operation Fast and Furious defendants. For each informant or cooperating defendant, please identify the other agency, the date that DEA learned of their informant or cooperating defendant’s status, and a description of how the DEA learned of their informant or cooperating defendant’s status.

3) A list of all personnel designated as DEA liaisons with other federal law enforcement agencies in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

Please also include any communications of the following individuals at DEA relating to Operation Fast and Furious or Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta:

1) Elizabeth Kempshall, Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix

2) Doug Coleman, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix

3) Chris Feistle, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix

4) Albert Laurita, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Tucson

5) David Hathaway, Resident Agent in Charge, Nogales

6) Joe Muenchow, Resident Agent in Charge, Yuma

These records should include emails, memoranda, briefing papers, and handwritten notes. You should also produce communications these individuals had with any ATF employee from between October 1, 2009, and June 30, 2011.

Please provide the documents and information requested no later than July 26, 2011. If you have any questions regarding this request, please contact Ranking Member Grassley’s office at (202) 224-5225 or Chairman Issa’s Committee staff at (202) 225-5074. Thank you for your prompt attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,

Darrell Issa, Chairman, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives

For the past six months, we have been conducting an investigation into Operation Fast and Furious, conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). This program allowed approximately 2,000 heavy-duty assault type firearms to be illegally trafficked, and hundreds of these weapons have already been recovered at crime scenes in Mexico. Operation Fast and Furious was an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) prosecutor-led strike force case where ATF worked in coordination with other agencies. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was one of these agencies. To help us better understand the role of the FBI in this multi-agency OCDETF case, we request that you produce communications relating to Operation Fast and Furious by FBI personnel based in Phoenix, Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas, including the below-listed officials:

1) Nathan Gray, Former Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division

5) John Iannarelli, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division

6) John Strong, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division

7) David Cuthbertson, Special Agent in Charge, El Paso Field Division

8) The Case Agent from the Tucson office in charge of the Brian Terry murder investigation

Such communications should include e-mails, documents, memoranda, briefing papers, and handwritten notes. You should also produce communications these individuals had with any ATF employee between October 1, 2009, and June 30, 2011.

Paid FBI Informants

In recent weeks, we have learned of the possible involvement of paid FBI informants in Operation Fast and Furious. Specifically, at least one individual who is allegedly an FBI informant might have been in communication with, and was perhaps even conspiring with, at least one suspect whom ATF was monitoring. We are interested in determining the veracity of these claims. To that end, please provide a response to the following questions:

1) How many paid FBI informants, prospective informants assigned an informant number, or cooperating defendants (“informants”) were in communication with any of the ATF suspects or their associates under Operation Fast and Furious? What was the nature of, and how frequent were, these contacts?

2) Were any of these informants previously deported by the Drug Enforcement Administration or any other law enforcement agency? If so, when did these deportations take place?

3) What is the process for repatriation for FBI informants? What other agencies are notified? Did that process occur here?

4) Were FBI personnel in Arizona aware of the involvement of these informants during Operation Fast and Furious?

5) Did other law enforcement agencies learn of the involvement of FBI informants related to Operation Fast and Furious? If so, please explain in detail when and how?

Additionally, please provide the following:

6) Any FBI 302s relating to targets, suspects, defendants or their associates in the Fast and Furious investigation, including the 302s provided to ATF Special Agent Hope MacAllister during the calendar year 2011.

7) Any other investigative reports prepared by the Bureau relating targets, suspects or defendants in the Fast and Furious case.

Jaime Zapata

Additionally, we understand that the FBI is the lead investigative agency into the death of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Special Agent Jaime Zapata, who was murdered in Mexico on February 15, 2011. The family of Jaime Zapata is still seeking answers about the circumstances involving his death. On June 14, 2011, attorneys for the Zapata family wrote a letter to José Angel Moreno, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, Cory Nelson, the FBI Special Agent in Charge for San Antonio, and several ICE officials in Texas requesting information about the specific circumstances of Jaime Zapata’s death.[2] Given the FBI’s lead role in this investigation, we respectfully ask the following questions related to the Zapata murder:

1) Was Jaime Zapata armed? If not, why not?

2) Was Jaime Zapata traveling in a bulletproof vehicle? If so, how was he killed inside of the vehicle?

3) Please describe, in detail, the actual circumstances leading up to, and including, the shooting of Jaime Zapata.

4) What investigative steps have been taken by the Bureau since the shooting?

Additionally, please provide the following:

5) Any FBI 302s relating to this investigation.

6) Any other investigative reports prepared by the Bureau regarding the Zapata murder.

7) Any photographs of the crime scene taken by FBI personnel.

Please provide the requested documents and information as soon as possible, but no later than noon on July 25, 2011. If possible, the preference is to receive all documents in electronic format.

If you have any questions regarding these requests, please contact Ranking Member Grassley’s office at (202) 224-5225 or in Chairman Issa’s office at (202) 225-5074. We look forward to receiving your response.

Sincerely,

Darrell Issa, Chairman, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives

I realize they are being methodical and thorough in their investigation, but my fear is that this process will be stalled at every step to allow the current administration all the time necessary to twist the investigation to suit their agenda of re-election.Mark my words, before the election, Obama and his crew will take CREDIT for exposing this fiasco and show how THEY have taken steps to solve the problem! The press will nod their heads and pretend to think about it but will print whatever they are told to anyway, as the idea of truth in journalism died many,many years ago.I own and operate a gun shop 5 miles from the Mexico border, so as you can imagine this treason hits a little close to home for me and my family. My question is what is it going to take for action? I'm sick of waiting for someone to "lead" us to action. During the American revolution it is said that only about 10% of us Americans were actively fighting for independence, 10% were with King George and about 80% went on with "life as usual" watching from the sidelines. Do you really believe we couldn't mobilize 10% of Americans today? How many are out of work?how is the economy doing? What will it take?Or is all lost? Have we become so "controlled" over the last few generations that as long as the cable TV is on we are pacified to do nothing.All day long I hear from young marines and army guys about how the military has had enough of this junk, so I ask them the same question I will ask you reading this,"what is your personal line in the sand?" I mean if you don't have a line drawn already, how will you know when they have crossed it?If you are like most of my customers your answer will be something about rolling down the streets taking guns from the homes. This will never happen, they aren't stupid. They know this will only "awaken a sleeping giant" instead they scheme,plot and plan to make our availability dry up. After Obama got elected for the next 6 months the news was posting articles about how much money gun shops were making, but it was for the most part a lie. Shops that weren't as big as Cabela's couldn't get .380 ammo or .22lr ammo for almost 6 months! That is our bread and butter, but the manufacturers weren't able to keep up with the demand. How many U.S. based companies are currently manufacturing the primary explosives for primers(keep in mind with a pen stroke we could have zero foreign ammo imported)Do some research, look for yourself, the ENTIRE gun movement is lost without the lowly little primer. Who issues the permits "needed" to manufacture the Lead Styphante or Mercury Fulminate?Sorry for the rant, I'm just growing tired of waiting, and I suspect IF (big if) the vote isn't rigged there are enough stupid people in the U.S. to vote for this treasonous bunch of criminals again.

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

On the efficacy of passive resistance in the face of the collectivist beast. . .

Had the Japanese got as far as India, Gandhi's theories of "passive resistance" would have floated down the Ganges River with his bayoneted, beheaded carcass. -- Mike Vanderboegh.

In the future . . .

When the histories are written, “National Rifle Association” will be cross-referenced with “Judenrat.” -- Mike Vanderboegh to Sebastian at "Snowflakes in Hell"

"Smash the bloody mirror."

If you find yourself through the looking glass, where the verities of the world you knew and loved no longer apply, there is only one thing to do. Knock the Red Queen on her ass, turn around, and smash the bloody mirror. -- Mike Vanderboegh

From Kurt Hoffman over at Armed and Safe.

"I believe that being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable."

From long experience myself, I can only say, "You betcha."

"Only cowards dare cringe."

The fears of man are many. He fears the shadow of death and the closed doors of the future. He is afraid for his friends and for his sons and of the specter of tomorrow. All his life's journey he walks in the lonely corridors of his controlled fears, if he is a man. For only fools will strut, and only cowards dare cringe. -- James Warner Bellah, "Spanish Man's Grave" in Reveille, Curtis Publishing, 1947.

"We fight an enemy that never sleeps."

"As our enemies work bit by bit to deconstruct, we must work bit by bit to REconstruct. Be mindful where we should be. Set goals. We fight an enemy that never sleeps. We must learn to sleep less." -- Mike H. at What McAuliffe Said

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.